


Catalyst

by Jedibrarian



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:02:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25023610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jedibrarian/pseuds/Jedibrarian
Summary: Felix Iresso reflects on the circumstances that caused him to join the Jedi Consular's crew
Relationships: Felix Iresso/Female Jedi Consular | Barsen'thor
Kudos: 10





	Catalyst

Hoth had a way of freezing things, of getting them stuck. Not just bodies, or machinery. Ambitions, careers, plans came here to hibernate, and if they couldn’t endure the cold indefinitely, to die. Iresso had the dubious blessing of being good at those kinds of situations; he told himself it was that, not that thing on Althir, that ended him up with this assignment. He was the guy who could be called upon to salvage something positive in a relentlessly bleak situation; spending your formative years in a refugee camp was good for honing that quality, after all. But the cycle of freezing, thawing, and refreezing, the grinding tedium punctuated by White Maw and Imperial raids, and the high-strung, fearful troops in his care were beginning to wear him down in the same way that everything on Hoth’s surface was eventually scoured away to nothing by wind-driven needles of ice. He caught himself in idle, quiet moments, wondering how long he’d survive.

Things began to change when she appeared. In his admittedly limited previous experience, Jedi were the same kind of imperturbable, unchanging creatures as the ground beneath his feet, impervious to the onslaught of the weather, unaffected by the chaos of battle and the defeated, negative character of the troops. Once you got past that stretch where their behavior was profoundly unnerving, where there was something uncanny, almost droid-like about them, it was comforting to have people at your shoulder who could get their jobs done without succumbing to the thousand little challenges that, on Hoth, quickly accumulated into a multi-ton snowdrift.

She was different. She’d materialized with the suddenness of a lava plume out of the thermal vents below the Spire, and blown everything wide open. If her colleagues were glacial, everything about her was like fire, from eyes like the heart of a blast furnace, to the sudden flare of her robes and the snap and roar of her saber in a fight, to the uncomfortable way that she seemed to suck all of the air out of a room when she left it. Within hours of her arrival, his unit had progressed from half-hearted backchat to open mutiny, then back around to a cohesive, competent fighting force. With her backing, the mousy, grass-green CO of Aurek had finally made a decisive move against encroaching Imperial sabateurs; he’d even received a field promotion for it, at her recommendation! According to incoming reports from Thesh, the cultists who made up the spiritual backbone of the White Maw were in rout. A combined force of Republic regulars, Imperial commandos, and at least one Jedi had managed to cooperate long enough to accomplish something.

It was entirely possible that the timing was coincidental and that too many consecutive weeks of staring at the reflection of the sun on the snow were eroding his brain, but he could swear that she was the catalyzing force behind the thaw. And sitting in his office, hunched over his stack of holobriefs, with her presence elsewhere on the station burning like a signal flare in the periphery of his awareness, the creeping numbness began to recede for him as well. He was beginning to think that he might have options other than to grit his teeth, be of good cheer, and lie down in the snow to die in the same way that he’d laid too many of his own men to rest.

He wrenched open a file drawer, found the chip he’d set to the side weeks ago, and snapped it into his datapad. His fingers stung, sensation returning, as he flew through the opening brackets of the transfer request form. For once, he allowed himself to imagine something other than making the best of being stuck in place, and the resolve to fight for it if necessary.


End file.
